The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores

This book was the right book at the right time for me. It provided a quiet respite from the stresses of the pandemic and the election year ugliness. It is a novel; however, the narrative closely tracks the author’s life. It reads like a memoir with a few changed names and details. The narrator is a writer, living in the midst of California farmland. When the story begins, she is barely making a living, writing for a small newspaper that is also floundering. She finds her passion and her heart writing personal stories about the Azorean immigrants who populate the farms nearby. In real life and in the book, the author’s career improves dramatically. (She won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing about the farmers and field workers in the drought-stricken towns of California’s Central valley.) Only a small portion of the book is about that part of her life. Most of it is about life in the Azores. The reader learns a great deal in this book about the Azorean immigrants in the US and Canada and the heartfelt connection that they feel for the islands. Diana’s accounts of her time on the islands is captivating. The subtitle says it all: “Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores.” I selected this book more than two years ago and it just coasted along on my Kindle, ignored by me. It turned out to be perfect timing. The tone is gentle and slightly melancholy at time. The author is not shy about sharing the anxieties and worries of the narrator. Kindness and generosity are prevalent, but the book never takes a sappy tone.

This was a languorous journey of Ms. Marcum's life in the Azores islands. The narration flips back and forth between her life in the States and her time in the islands, which mostly works well from a reading standpoint. There are a handful of occasions where the switch is abrupt and the time between one place and the other is several years. These jolts interrupted the tenderhearted, sentimental feel of her story. Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading about her time on the islands. She has deep feelings for the Azores and its people, and her writing makes the reader feel that deep connection, too.

While the story overall is engaging enough, I found it a bit slow. I enjoyed imagining all of the colors, sounds and smells of the Azores as the descriptions were vivid. It also reminded me of the joys of travel (something greatly missed after two years of pandemic living). However, I also found myself frustrated at times with the fact that many chapters were more vignettes rather than a connected plot line.

Those of us who love travel (and those who write about theirs) carry a lot of baggage, both literal and figurative. Fortunately, travel is a learning experience, and often can make us give up dead weight. We may begin to see ourselves in a new light. I have several bookcases of travel yarns that follow somewhat of a pattern. Someone leaves point A because of unhappiness or lack of fulfillment. Point B beckons, often in a foreign country. Life at the latter destination poses new problems, but invigorates and transforms the author. Fortunately, each saga is a tad different. Each of us has our own demons to conquer.Reading about someone else's journey is satisfying, providing their writing is well crafted, their insights are thoughtful and unpretentious, and they come across as someone worth knowing. Diana Marcum's tale fills the bill on all counts.Living in New England, we have had considerable contact with the Portuguese diaspora and have great respect for this hardworking community. We have traveled extensively in Portugal and made a trip to Madeira, but have not been to the Azores. There is plenty in her book to encourage a visit to the islands.As we have seen with those of Greek, Italian, Irish, Asian, Jewish and other "minority" heritages, there is much in common in terms of hard work, cultural loyalty and protection from the discrimination of outsiders. Still there is genuine hospitality for the foreigner who makes the effort to know and appreciate their way of life. Ms Marcum earned the acceptance of Azoreans on both sides of the Atlantic and has won us over with an entertaining book.

I absolutely loved this book. It was fun, funny , serious and informative. After reading this book, I would love to visit the Azores.

I found this book very frustrating. It was filled with uninteresting anecdotes about the author and nothing substantive about the Azores. The only thing useful was that it pointed me in the direction of a short documentary about the diaspora in Central California.

Really good book about an amazing place :)

The Azores have been on my to do list for twenty years or more so I was instantly attracted to this book; I had no idea that there were enclaves of azorians in California and other parts. This story of those people and their annual pilgrimages back home is so insightful and the descriptions of the life and recent history of the islands so interesting - I am even more determined to go now, Diana Marcum’s love of them is infectious.

I loved this book and feel in love with Azores and all the characters. I'm tempted to book a flight!